The year 1996 sees Raystorm which is a 3D update of the 1993 game Rayforce. They're both vertically scrolling shooters. They both employ the standards of power-ups and boss battles. They both also feature two types of fire. The primary weapon fires out on the level of the ship and the secondary weapon features a lock-on system that allows for multiple ground and air targets to be hit at once. The boss battles play big into the weapon system with both primary and secondary attack points. Raystorm is in 3D. The very early 3D of clear cut polygon edges. You can see how everything was built. The graphics were impressive for the time but come off as looking like a good PlayStation game now. The 3D graphics also allow for the levels to be full of twists and turns and hills and valleys that you go in and out of and around. It made for a far more dramatic and interesting presentation for the genre at the time.
The final two games on the disc both saw release in the arcades of 1997. If you were to take Bust-A-Move and combine it with Break-Out then you'd have Puchi Carat. You control a paddle that moves along the bottom of the screen to the left and right. There are colored orbs in rows above you that move down a row after a set amount of time. The game ends when the orbs reach the bottom of the screen. So you have to keep bouncing a ball into the orbs to remove them. Missing the ball with the paddle causes the rows to instantly drop another row. The graphics feature an anime style background image that's for each of the twelve anime characters you choose at the start of the game. The characters are in the background essentially acting as cheerleaders. Their animation actually can be a distraction. The game features a versus mode and a single-player mode.
The final game of the disc is G Darius. It takes the Darius formula and puts it into 3D. Which makes it look very cool but keeps it in 2D control as it's still a horizontally scrolling shooter. The bosses and enemies come into play from the background and foreground. They make dramatic sweeping entrances. The boss battles have a lot of avoidance gameplay with them charging at you all the time from everywhere to show off the 3D graphics. Other than that it's still Darius. Which means you have you the sea life based technological monstrosities as enemies. You have the path selection system between each stage. You have the same power-up system. G Darius comes off as a lot more cheap than Darius Gaiden though as once you've lost a ship it's near impossible for you to recover and continue on.
And now for the final opinion, finally. This disc contains a massive amount of arcade history. It's an amazing value at the price. Thirty-nine games for twenty bucks. But that's all you're going to get. No history. No bonuses. No extras. Just good emulation and a simple and clean interface. I think the original Taito Legends was more accessible to a casual player offering a wider variety of games. Taito Legends 2 is pretty much only for the historians out there. Those who were around to play the games originally or those who want to get their hands on every last arcade title or collection. I'm giving Taito Legends 2 a 7.
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